Netanyahu insists Golan will remain in Israeli hands forever ahead of talks with Putin on Syria

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golan syria mapIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that Israel would never relinquish the Golan Heights, in a signal to Russia and the United States that the strategic plateau should be excluded from any deal on Syria’s future.

“The Golan Heights will remain in Israel’s hands forever,” Netanyahu told his cabinet, which met for the first time on the Golan since the area was captured from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed in 1981, in a move that has not won international recognition.

Netanyahu, who made a similar statement during an election campaign in 2009, said he had spoken by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday and told him that Israel’s security must not be compromised by any peace agreement to end Syria’s five-year-old civil war.

That would mean, Netanyahu said, that “at the end of the day Iranian, Hezbollah and ISIS forces would be expelled from Syrian territory”.

Iran, one of Israel’s main foes, as well as Tehran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, have supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict against rebel forces and Islamic State militants.

Echoing a previous call from the Jewish Home party, a key ultranationalist partner in his governing coalition, Netanyahu urged the international community “to recognize finally that the Golan will remain permanently under Israeli sovereignty”.

Officially, the Golan was chosen as the venue for the cabinet session as a way to mark the anniversary of Netanyahu’s election victory a year ago.

But the timing was seen by some political commentators as linked to talks Netanyahu is due to hold with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Syria, where Moscow’s military and diplomatic interventions are crucial.

golan mapThough Russia is committed to keeping Syria intact under Assad, it has not publicly broached the future of the Golan.

“Whatever happens beyond the border, the (Golan) line is not going to change,” Netanyahu said, in his remarks on his conversation with Kerry.

Having sent in Russian forces last year to turn the tide against a rebellion raging since 2011, Putin, who meets Netanyahu in Moscow on Thursday, wants to preserve Assad’s central rule as part of national reconciliation efforts. Other powers want him gone.

While formally neutral on the civil war next door, Israel has predicted Syria’s sectarian partition is inevitable.

Past U.S.-backed Israeli-Syrian peace efforts were predicated on a return of the Golan, where some 23,000 Israelis now live alongside roughly the same number of Druse Arabs loyal to Syria.

 

REUTERS

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44 responses to “Netanyahu insists Golan will remain in Israeli hands forever ahead of talks with Putin on Syria”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Creeps creeping further all the time ….

    1. Creeps creeping further where? And where to? Your posts are becoming ever more cryptic (pun definitely intended). 🙂

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Encrypt all to be safe …

        1. With Enigma…..

  2. Netanyahu insists the Golan will remain in Israeli hands, the question is whether Putin and John Kerry have the same position on this interposition.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Naw .. they bomb UN folks too …

      1. Unidentified Nations….

    2. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      It needed this picture?

      1. You probably ‘seen’ a flag that doesn’t exist in the picture of the UN monitoring station on Mount Hermon.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          I did..so what!

    3. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      OK. What about the Syrians?
      Residents of occupied Golan celebrate the 70th anniversary of Syria’s independence. (17-04-2016)

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Only the men … the women run to Jordan. :-))))

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          No ..tradition.

          1. Funny that the Druze tradition in Israel is to fly Israeli flags from your home all year round.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Yah .. that’s weird. Something like blood over the door? Keeps the ‘settlers’ from trashing the houses? Wards off ‘evil spirits’? ;-)))

          3. It is called patriotism. You should check it out some time.

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            We have that too … But many fly the flag of their favourite ‘sport’ club. :-)))

          5. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Lebanon releases Australians in kidnap case on TDS.. but we can’t read it.

          6. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Slow ‘updates’ here sometimes … ;-))

          7. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            The miserable “Saudi government has vast network of PR, lobby firms in U.S.”

            http/www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html?smid=tw-share

          8. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            They might be willing to hurt themselves more with the economic concepts. 😉
            But Congress made it’s bed already in years past.

            Meanwhile, some extremist Israelis being admitted to …
            http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/middleeast/israel-uncovered-jewish-extremist-cell-west-bank.html

          9. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Patriotism?

          10. source please.

          11. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            “The soldier’s mother Oshra also spoke at the event, tearing up as she told participants that her son had always wanted to be a combat soldier “in order to help.”…”
            So, she should be asking what changed his goal to be a ‘helper’.

          12. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            The Druze in Israel speak Arabic and identify as Arabs, but they are a community distinct from other Arab Israelis, with their own religion and cultural norms.
            The Golan Druze are distinct from other Druze communities in Israel. The former group is culturally more modern, because of Syrian influence and also because of distance from Druze religious centers in the western Galilee and Lebanon.

      2. The Golan is syrian than what you mean with “OK. What about the Syrians?”?

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          The Golan is Syrian.

          1. I wasn’t aware of it……

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Because you’re a Zionist who plays innocence
            “UN Human Rights Council Condemns Israel’s Illegal Settlements, Occupation Of Golan Heights.”
            “US and Germany declare Golan Heights not part of Israel”

          3. You really have to be very smart Sheldon, when you know so much about the Bundesrepublik position on this issue.
            But I still don’t know the “Putin and Kerry” positions, do you know……

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Stop calling me Sheldon.

          5. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            You’re insufferable. Kerry works for Obama.

          6. I wasn’t aware of it Sheldon……

    4. “[T]he question is whether Putin and John Kerry have the same position on this interposition”
      They are going to start a nuclear war to give the Golan back to the Assad family. And to the ghost of Salah Jadid.

  3. Hannibal Avatar

    Another religion of pieces like islamists, zionists after all are of the same breed, cousins really. Steal what is not theirs and blame it on a religious book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NMwohMhP10

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      God hates them. Settlers say non-Jews (gentiles) are not human..human rights are for Jews.

      1. Everyone knows that God loves the Arabs. Even more than they love each other.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          God’s love created men free to choose, he never chose people who call themselves Humans, say non-Jews are dogs.

          1. Dunno (or care) about the Jew-non-Jew crap you’re so obsessed with. One thing is certain: you are not a dog. I like dogs. They are great creatures.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            For some they are ‘great’. And some like to eat them. And here we are simply discussing ‘usage’.

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            But some use “Dog” some use “beast” some use “non Adam”, Adami means Human in Arabic

          4. Well, we must be in total disagreement about the meaning of the word “discussion”, buddy. I am merely trying to save the dog species from (symbolic) appropriation by the “Resistance” here.

          5. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            What resistance? To whom? We love dogs.

            “The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. THEY ARE BEASTS.” TALMUD: Baba Mezia, 114b (page referrals).”

            “The Akum (non-Jew) is like a dog. Yes, the scripture says to honor the dog more than the non-Jew.” TALMUD:Ereget Raschi Erod, 22 30.”

            “Even though God created the non-Jew they are still ANIMALS in human form. It is not becoming of a Jew to be served by an animal. Therefore he will be served by animals in human form.” TALMUD: Midrasch Talpioth, p 225, Warsaw 1855.”

            “A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant ANIMAL.” TALMUD: Coschen Hamischpat 405.”

            “Every Jew who spills the blood of the godless (non-Jews), is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God.” TALMUD: Bammidber raba c 21 & jalkut 772.”

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